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4 Ways Your Relationship Can Be Affected by Lack of Sleep

People of all age need a good nights sleep and although you may want to stay up that little bit later before you go to bed, it can have negative effects on your day-to-day life.

When you’re getting less than the 7 minimum recommended hours of sleep per night advised by the National Sleep Foundation, your relationships and love life can potentially suffer the negative effects of your bad sleeping routine.

From moodiness and looking physically less attractive, there are many ways in which a relationship can be affected by a lack of sleep; including:

Poor decision making

According to the Loughborough University study conducted in 2000, poor decision making is a negative effect of sleep deprivation.

They conducted a study where they found that sleep has a negative effect on the pre-frontal cortex of the brain. This is the part of the brain in charge of executing functions, meaning a bad effect on your ability to make rational decisions.

This can be damaging to your relationship as you may make poor decisions on important issues such as life goals, your expectations and future.

Conflict

Along with poor decision making possibly being a source of conflict in a relationship, your overall sleeping pattern can potentially cause conflict and disagreements.

A study by the Social Psychological & Personality Science questions the theory that sleepless nights mean worse fights, and the results are fairly surprising!

The study found that when one member of the relationship is sleep deprived, there are more (and often worse) romantic conflicts.

Due to the fact that poor sleep and a lack of sleep have the ability to show more negative emotions and provide less successful conflict resolutions, your relationship may bear the brunt of your bad night’s sleep!

Less attractive!

Beauty sleep isn’t just a myth. Swedish researchers have found that sleep deprived people are deemed as ‘less physically attractive’ than people who’ve had a good nights rest.

According to the British Medical Journal, the ‘more prominent facial cues of sleep deprived people are sufficient for others to judge us as less attractive’, meaning the effects of sleep deprivation definitely go further than just feeling under the weather!

Although many relationships aren’t based solely on physical appearance, looking your best can help with self-confidence and in turn, feeling more content within your relationship.

Sense of humour

For most people, a good sense of humour is the key to a great relationship.

Your own personal sense of humour can fluctuate depending on the amount of sleep that you get; the more sleep deprived you are, the less funny you may find things.

In 2006, scientists at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research found that a person tends to lose their sense of humour when tired. It concluded when it found that people who had been awake for 49 ½ hours found amusing comics and cartoons much less funnier then they had previously.

Humour also requires a high level of cognition; something which a lack of sleep inhibits.

Getting a great nights sleep with a luxury made to measure mattress can help you be in the best possible mood, ready for great decision making and maintaining your great sense of humour! All of which helps to maintain a healthy, happy relationship!